Explorers who found the wreck of a 19th-century steamboat off South Carolina two years ago are hauling up a trove of gold coins and bars that could be worth up to $1 billion.
The booty aboard the SS Central America includes fortunes made in the California Gold Rush, said Judy Conrad, a historian with the Columbus America Discovery Group which is excavating the wreck.
“I never dreamed it would be like this,” Thomas Thompson, a director of the Columbus America Discovery group, said.
The paddlewheel steamer carrying passengers to New York from San Francisco went down Sept 12, 1857, in a hurricane. Of the approximately 575 people aboard, only about 150 survived.
The wreck is 200 miles east of Charleston, just inside U.S. waters. The ocean is about 8,000 ft deep there.
The ship was carrying a regular monthly shipment of gold from the San Francisco mint to New York banks. The gold was valued at the time at $1.2 million, based on the price of gold of about 90 cents an oz in 1857.
The value of the government shipment has been estimated at today’s bullion prices — at up to $450 million.
In addition, the haul appears to include riches belonging to passengers returning East after making their fortunes in California, said Barry Schatz, another Columbus America director.
The ship was located two years ago and its bell recovered last summer, said Pamela Adkins, a spokesman for the group.
Among the treasures found were thousands of gold “double eagle coins” which an auction consultant valued at about $8,000 each, Thompson said.003
from California Mining Journal
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